Monthly Archives: October 2008

Asking the right question

Researching today’s sermon, I came across an undated typescript by Duncan Howlett in our church’s archives. This typescript appears to date from between 1938 and 1946, when Howlett was minister in New Bedford, and in it Howlett anticipates some of the points he made a few years later in a pamphlet he wrote for the Pamphlet Commission of the American Unitarian Association. What makes this typescript interesting is that Howlett makes an explicit reference to process theology, and he links process theology with his assertion that Unitarianism is concerned with the process of thinking, not with determining correct belief. Here’s an excerpt from the typescript:

“No really satisfying answer to the question, ‘What is Unitarianism?’, is possible because of the assumptions that are implicit in the question itself. Alfred North Whitehead used to say, and I’m quoting, ‘If you cannot agree with a man’s conclusions, but cannot find anything wrong with the argument by which he reaches them, look at his premises — spoken or unspoken — admitted or unadmitted — and there you will find the answer to your question.’ I believe the difficulties we encounter [in] describing Unitarianism are found in the assumptions that we bring to the question itself….

“Our error lies in the fact that we, like the orthodox [Christians], have always taken the creed structure of Christendom for granted. We have tried to explain ourselves in terms of it and apparently it has never occurred to us to do otherwise…. [But] You don’t say anything really significant about a Unitarian when you give a summary of the theological opinions he happens to hold….”

And later in the typescript, Howlett continues:

“Unitarians, rejecting fixed creeds and confessions of faith, hold that the task of religion is to state its first principles, constantly to test the validity of those principles in open encounter where every voice may be heard, and to be ready to restate them whenever clarity requires. The Unitarians believe that truth in religion, as in all things, lies at the end of the process of inquiring. Every possible facet of humane xperience must be brought to bear upon such an inquiry if any approximation of truth is to be acheived as a result of it. Unitarians believe that religious differences between men [sic] ought to be measured by their belief in this process or by their lack of it.”

Autumn watch

A long drive up to Walpole, New Hampshire, today to sing with the New England Sacred Harp Convention. Walpole sits down in the Connecticut River valley, with the river on one side and steep hills on the other side. After the singing, K—- and I decided to stretch our legs before the long drive home. We walked up a side road to the height of land behind the town, and looked down into the river valley, and across at the hills of Vermont on the other side of the river.

“Looks like the trees are almost at peak color,” K—- said. The view of the Vermont hills was framed by one big sugar maple that was glorious in its red, orange, yellow, and green leaves. We started driving, mostly downhill, and by the time we got to the Boston suburbs, we noticed a distinct difference:– the trees were mostly green, except for the red maples in the low-lying swamps.

We should discuss creationism in the classroom?!

That’s what Michael Reiss says. He’s a former teacher with PhD in evolutionary biology, now director of education at the Royal Society in the U.K.: “What Reiss believes is that when the issue of creationism or intelligent design is raised in the class room (and he expects it to be raised increasingly frequently) the teacher should discuss it as an alternative ‘worldview’ but show why it is not a scientific theory and why evolution is a scientific theory.”

More at the Nature Web site.

Phillip Pullman on banning books, and religion

What with all the allegations that Sarah Palin wants to ban books (not true, by the way, according to Librarian.net), it’s worth hearing what Phillip Pullman has to say about book banning in a recent opinion piece in the U.K. Guardian:

“…They never learn. The inevitable result of trying to ban something — book, film, play, pop song, whatever — is that far more people want to get hold of it than would ever have done if it were left alone. Why don’t the censors realise this?”

Pullman’s book The Golden Compass a.k.a. Northern Lights was one of the top five books in the American Library Association’s most-challenged books of 2007 — and his experience has been that when people want to ban his books, his book sales go up.

Interestingly, Pullman points out that the American Library Association reports that people challenged or banned his books for religious reasons. Pullman goes on to say this about religion in general:

“Religion, uncontaminated by power, can be the source of a great deal of private solace, artistic inspiration, and moral wisdom. But when it gets its hands on the levers of political or social authority, it goes rotten very quickly indeed…. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good.”

I think Pullman goes too far in the direction of calling for religious quietism — after all, quietist religion too often gets co-opted by authoritarian regimes which then use it to keep the masses in line. I’d put it this way:– religion should promote intellectual freedom in part by staying in a critical, adversarial relationship with civil government and civil authority. For example, from my religious point of view that adversarial relationship might well include actively promoting books that politicians might prefer went away. You know, actively promoting books like the Bible which actively challenges U.S. government policies in Iraq, because the Bible tells us to be peacemakers, which means we should not be at war in Iraq. Stuff like that.

Thanks to.

Autumn watch

Across the street from the fast food joint at County and Elm Streets, there’s a house that has a beautiful copper beech growing in the yard. I was walking down Elm Street when I heard an odd rustling sort of sound coming from the copper beech. I looked over and saw that brown stuff was dropping out of the tree, and I realized what was going on: the beech nuts were ripe, and some squirrels were sitting up in the tree shelling them and eating them as fast as they could. The sound was the squirrels cracking open the beech nuts, and the brown stuff coming down was beech nut shells. Squirrels almost always get to beech nuts before we humans do. I can only remember once when I got to eat any beech nuts:– a warm evening in October, 1999, while sitting outdoors reading theology on the back steps of the library of Andover Newton Theological School. The steps were covered with beech nuts that had fallen from the two big beech trees that grew nearby, and half of the beech nuts I picked still had the kernels in them. I cracked them open and ate the kernels, which tasted very good indeed; and I finally understood why the squirrels rarely leave any for us humans to eat.

Volunteer management for churches: outline

Of all the things I do as a minister (and used to do as a Director of Religious Education), I’m best at volunteer management. The basic principles of volunteer management in churches are not complicated — no, volunteer management is not rocket science. However, the the devil is in the details, and there are many details in volunteer management. For years, I’ve been meaning to write out some of those devilish details of basic volunteer management principles for churches. I have lots of notes on the subject, and even an outline….

At this point, I’d love to have some feedback from my readers. Many of you are long-time church volunteers yourself, many others are involved in some aspect of volunteer management, and the rest of you are just plain smart people. Below, you’ll find my outline for a Web-based resource page on volunteer management. I’d love it if you, dear reader, would look it over and tell me what I’ve forgotten.

Once I get some feedback on the outline, I’ll start writing. And I’ll post what I write here so you can comment on it further. For now, here’s the outline…. Continue reading →